Did you notice the Best Buy ad in the Sunday paper? The theme is "go mobile," and the slogan on the front page is "summer's more fun when you're unplugged." Remember when it was a big deal to get plugged in? Now it's a big deal to get "unplugged." (Hey, just like in The Matrix!) Other interesting highlights:

• "Pick up a game piece for a chance to WIN 1 of 5 trips for 2 to see a SHERYL CROW CONCERT. Check to see if you've won instantly, then visit gomobile.bestbuy.com and use the WebDecoder for a second chance to win." [They're finally trying to use print to push folks to their web site.]
   
• There's a section of CDs by "Future superstars for under $10." [Five years ago, I would have paid $8 to sample some of these artists, but not anymore. I want to be able to preview them online and then purchase what I like. Then I want to be able to move the music around to my MP3 player, stereo, car, PC, etc. Hopefully the record companies will take notice of this change in buyer habits.]
   
• "Go! Camping. Pop a DVD into a portable player and watch movies under the stars." Plus, the Mintek CDV/CD player with MP3 playback is down to $299.92 after "instant savings and mail-in rebate." The full Mintek DVD/CD player is down to $59.92. [Everybody's going DVD now. I wish we'd gotten a DVD player in the minivan, rather than a VCP. Kids growing up today will grow up with DVDs as the standard for watching movies outside of a theater.]
   
• "At last! The new Tivo Digital Video Recorder is here." [Finally, a 60-hour Tivo is available. If I had the money, I'd still choose the ReplayTV 4000 with its 320 hours of storage space.]
   
• "Go!  Wandering. Record the perfect summertime music mix and take it wherever you go with a portable MP3 player." [Is Michael Eisner going to advocate criminalizing retailer ads that promote this activity? How is this different from Apple's "Rip, Mix, Burn" slogan that Eisner portrays as evil?"]
   
• Targus PDA Mouse for Palm OS Handhelds - $19.99. [I'm pointing this one out because I had never heard of or seen it before. Since it's only $20, I'll probably try this to see if it adds any real functionality. The product page says it works with pretty much any PDA running the Palm OS.]
   
• A 512MB PC133 SDRAM DIMM chip is now only $89.99 after mail-in and instant rebates. [This is amazing, and I will probably upgrade my PC to 1GB of RAM in the near future. Remember when 1MB cost an arm and a leg and your firstborn child?]
   
• A 100-pack of 80-minute CD-R discs is $17.99 after rebates. A 50-pack of 80-minute CD-R discs is only $5. [That's about 10 cents a disc. Gee... I wonder why these things are flying out the door faster than stores can ring them up?]
   
• A 120-GB 7200 RPM drive is down to $189.99 (I think - it's confusing). The ad says it "stores up to 30,000 MP3 files or 20 hours of compressed video." A 60GB USB 2.0 external hard drive is down to $159.99 after mail-in and instant rebates. [More proof of John Robb's theories about storage and how increases in this area will affect how we manipulate our entertainment choices.]
   
• My Samsung phone for the Sprint PCS network that I would have paid $149 for is $19.92 this week after a $70 mail-in rebate. [Prices are coming down on older phones in order to make way for newer ones that will access faster networks. A year from now, we'll see the scales tip towards color phones with Java embedded in them.]

It would be interesting to compare this ad to one from a year ago to see how quickly the price of storage, processors, RAM, and media have fallen. It's all part of our march towards making our personal information shifted, but it could come to a screeching halt if the CBDTPA was to become law.